Katie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

There's now an economic transformation in progress around the world, and our government recognises and has been working on providing scalable commercialisable solutions to help Australia pivot to the new energy order. But building to this point has taken months and years. Changes to an economy of this magnitude cannot happen overnight. All of this takes time. Anyone who has been in leadership positions in the real world knows that, if you want to build a building at a school or hospital, it doesn't happen overnight. It takes years of planning and commitment to actually translate those to outcomes. A lot of work needs to happen, work which includes technological development, the building of businesses, the building of new infrastructure and the development of new customers and trade partnerships. I know it has been a long time since those opposite have been in government, but building businesses, infrastructure and new technology takes time.

We have a plan to get to net zero by 2050 that is achievable, accountable and economically viable. Those on that side are all about targets and no plan. A target without a plan is simply wishful thinking. It is what you do when all you care about are votes and not having an impact. Our plan has been under development for years. In fact it has resulted in the release of Australia's first low-emissions technology strategy. I would like this place to be debating those issues, not wishful thinking about targets that have no meaning, not wishful thinking about targets that have no plan. I would like to hear those opposite talking about our technology investment road map and having real debates about issues that are going to have an effect on Australians—that are going to happen, whether we like it or not. I would like to hear them talking about our road map, which will support $80 billion of public and private investment by 2030 and support 160,000 jobs.

We are making a shift to a long-term commitment to a net zero future because we know we should and we know we can. We don't believe in offering false hope with hastily made targets on the run. When we commit, Australians can be confident that we will deliver. We are doing the hard work right across the economy—on energy, transport, manufacturing and agriculture. We have been clear that we will continue to invest record amounts in renewables and in the highest solar uptake in the world. Australia is building wind and solar around three times faster than Europe or the USA on a per person basis. Australia has the world's highest uptake of rooftop solar, with one in four homes having rooftop solar panels.

But we just can't rely on the sun and wind. We've seen that with the recent wind drought in the UK. As everyone knows, the sun goes down at night and rises in the morning, but overnight you can't use solar. We need power to back up the intermittency of renewables. We need firming power. We understand this, on this side. To this issue we've made a commitment using gas and hydropower for that firming power in the short and medium term to help us pivot off our traditional energy sources. Our investment in Snowy Hydro 2.0 will mean clean energy and more jobs.

Tasmania is leading the way with its wonderful hydropower, which has more than enough to help not only itself but also mainland Australia. We will make that happen. We will make Tasmania the battery of the nation through development of the Marinus Link. More than that, we know that the private sector is also investing in hydro. We know, through the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, the world's largest government-led green bank, and ARENA, that we're investing in scalable, commercial, clean-tech solutions to fuel our manufacturing, ag and export sectors. These five clean-tech, commercial stretch targets aim to get clean hydrogen under $2 a kilo. These are facts. This is commercial. This is what business needs. We're looking for electricity from storage for firming under $100 per megawatt hour. We need green steel production under $900 per tonne and low-emission aluminium under $2 per tonne. We need carbon capture and storage under $20 per tonne of CO2, and soil cover measurement under $3 per hectare.

The significant amount of work from this government to build a plan for our future has reached a momentous point not only for our environment but also for our economy. I'm proud to say that since day one in this place I've been working very hard every day inside the government. In my first speech I said that climate change is real and affects us all. It's not just an environmental imperative to act. It's an economic one.

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